UKLeaP – Reflections A practical look at using the standards in proof of concept models of interoperability Kirstie Coolin Application Developer e-Portfolios University of Nottingham Kirstie CoolinApplication Developer e-Portfolios

Background EP4LL e-Portfolio to e-Portfolio Demonstration of importing e-Portfolio items using web services RIPPLL FE application form to MIS system FE Common Application Form data sent as XML to a web service where it is consumed and transformed

Issues arising Loss of granularity between systems Data may lose its intended mark up as its passed around disparate systems. Ambiguity of element labels Importance of consistency in mark up Flexibility Extensibility. Allow simplicity when required.

Summary Motivation to adopt use of standards Business case for adopters Ensure granularity is maintained For automatic data transfer and fetching data for thin e- portfolio model Usability vs. Granularity Maintaining a balance between simplicity for users and data integrity

The Way Forward? Getting started Simple applications, modular Simplifying the mark up process Community to provide a central area for adopters Real world examples and use cases Faq, example scenarios Best practice General guidelines to promote interoperability Shared vocabularies, appropriate schemas Developer Tools XSD, generic applications, XSLT wizards …

Example An XLST generator may aid the interoperability process. The XSLT file would only need to be created once for each system